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Truth, Urban Legends, and “Isms” - 06/17/2009

Truth, Urban Legends, and “Isms”

I’d like to take just a minute to discuss the topic of truth.

Under the guise of truth, Christians have communicated such things as the legend of Darwin’s deathbed conversion, defended the historicity of the Gospels through forgeries as the Pilate letter, or argued for the inspiration of Scripture on the basis of imbedded Bible codes. They’ve also employed sloppy journalism to circulate an endless variety of resurrection stories.

This kind of creative story telling is pandemic, not just today in Christianity; it is pandemic in the broader culture. It runs the gamut from NBC and their report on exploding General Motors trucks all the way to such things as Jane Roe and her fabricated story of rape, which by the way was encouraged by pro-abortion leaders and became instrumental in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision known as Roe v. Wade.

Look, in an age in which internet fabrications “travel halfway around the world before truth has had a chance to put its boots on,” the Apostle Paul in his words in Ephesians ring through the centuries with urgency as we as Christians are called to “stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.” (Eph 6:14). Your waist is the center of your body, so too truth is central to a biblical worldview.

So often we ask what is truth? The reason we are asking that question is postmodern people are staring at truth and yet failing to recognize its identity. Truth, in its final analysis is an aspect of the nature of God himself. In other words, to put on the belt of truth is to put on Christ because Christ is truth (John 14:6) and we as Christians are called to be witnesses or bearers of truth.

Christianity is not right because it work pragmatically, or feels right subjectively or because it’s “my truth” relativistically. It’s true because it’s anchored in the objective verity of Jesus Christ. The Christian faith as Os Guinness has once said isn’t true because it works; it works because it’s true. It’s not true because we experience it; we experience it because it is true. It’s not simply “true for you.” It’s true for any one who seeks in order to find “because truth is true even if nobody believes it” and a falsehood is false even if everyone holds to it. That’s why truth doesn’t yield to opinion or fashion or about being politically correct. It’s anchored in the very one who spoke and the limitless galaxies leapt into existence.

Truth is at its core essential to a realistic worldview. The moment we drop the belt of truth, our view of reality becomes seriously skewed. When its buckle breaks reality becomes clouded and the unthinkable becomes normal. We live in that kind of a milieu today. This is actually precisely why we’ve developed a little resource called What is Truth? The Best of the Christian Research Journal. You can pick up a copy at our Website of www.equip.org or calling us at 1-888-700-0274.

For further information see my entry in The Complete Bible Answer Book, Question 127 Did Darwin Have a Deathbed Conversion?

The Archko Volume, compiled by W.D. Mahan, which contains all manner of fictional documents purporting the perspective of Jesus’ contemporaries, including Joseph and Mary, Herod Antipas, and Caiaphas. For the classic refutation, see Edgar J. Goodspeed, Modern Apocrypha: Famous “Biblical” Hoaxes (Boston: The Beacon Press, 1956).